Railway right of ways are provided with a road bed of ballast into which sleepers or ties are set or, alternatively, as concrete beds to which the rails are anchored. The latter type of construction is of increasing importance for high-speed railway systems utilizing welded track or rails which are continuous over extremely long lengths. In concrete beds also, the rail is likewise fixed to sleepers which can be associated with sound-damping material to reduce the noise generated in the environment upon the passage of a vehicle.
Thus the rails rest upon the sleepers which rest, in turn, upon rigid bodies, e.g. a concrete slab, while between the rails and the sleeper and/or between the sleeper and the rigid body, elastic sound-damping intermediate rails are provided.
In conventional rail-mounting arrangements of the afore-described type, the elastic intermediate layer is disposed between the plate provided below the rail and the sleeper as described in German patent document--printed application (Auslegeschrift) No. 12 04 697. Alternatively, the elastic intermediate layer is provided between the sleeper and the concrete slab or plate overlying the ballast or subsurface of the road bed (see German patent document--Auslegeschrift No. 12 75 081), in the latter case further elastic layers being considered between the rail and the sleeper as well.
All of these conventional rail-mounting systems have the disadvantage that the elastic intermediate layer is subjected to compression to an extent that its elasticity is reduced so sharply that shock and vibration transmittal cannot be prevented, i.e. sound, in the form of noise, is generated or transmitted by the mounting.